The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system is a communication system that can display alert messages to wireless devices. Some examples of alert messages provided by the WEA system include AMBER alerts, fire or flood warnings, or tsunami warnings.
In conventional systems, the WEA system may identify cell towers that are in or near impacted areas and display the alert message to all devices that can be reached by the identified cell towers. In particular, these cell towers are configured to broadcast the alert message, and any device that receives the broadcasted message is configured to receive and then display the message.
However, the broadcasted alert message is also received by wireless devices that are located adjacent to, but not in, the impacted areas. For example, a fire evacuation message broadcasted by several cell towers near a forest fire may be received by, and displayed on, wireless devices that are located far (i.e., safe) from the forest fire, but still reachable by the cell towers.